My Alter Ego's Path to Greatness

A quiet, still space.

Twitch—

A man, sitting cross-legged at the center, twitched slightly. His eyes slowly opened, and a blinding light erupted, momentarily illuminating the surroundings before retreating into his eyes.

"…The connection is severed."

A strange, androgynous voice echoed, a mix of the ordinary and the extraordinary, the youthful and the ancient.

"This is… Ganghwange?"

The Society Master closed his eyes again, trying to reconnect, but it was futile. The link with his apostle, who channeled his divine power in Ganghwange, was severed. And it meant only one thing.

'What happened? There's no one left in Ganghwange who could harm the Heavenly Demon.'

Ascending to godhood wasn't simply a matter of power. Gods required believers, followers who offered their faith. It was as if the manager of a colony providing him with faith had suddenly died, all related channels shut down.

'Tsk, at a time like this…'

The Society Master, who had been recuperating from his injuries in Auterica, clicked his tongue. He hadn't expected the Heavenly Demon, a powerful being, to die so suddenly. Something unexpected had happened.

'…But I can't act rashly.'

Crossing dimensions was a costly process. Revisiting a world he'd already been to required even more time and effort, as the world's god wouldn't allow him to enter so easily. It was more efficient to explore new worlds.

"I overestimated him. I thought he was more useful."

He sighed and closed his eyes again. Losing an apostle who managed an entire world was a significant loss, but he had anticipated such setbacks.

'The most likely culprit is the remaining yokai. I thought I eliminated them all, but I must have missed some. I'll have to be more thorough next time.'

He dismissed the sudden incident and returned to his meditation, unaware that it was caused by the same group that had thwarted him in Auterica.

"U… Um… Lord Mad Demon?"

"Huh? What is it, buddy?"

"I… I'm telling you, I really don't taste good. I'm not joking; it's our main survival tactic. We even consider the foul-tasting skipjack tuna a delicacy…"

"Ah, geez! I get it! Why are you so scared?"

"…Then could you please stop drooling while looking at me…?"

"Ah."

Slurp!

Harley wiped his mouth, realizing he had been drooling unconsciously. They were on their way to a new location, away from Mount Yongzhong. Harley, having learned that Cheonggwan was from the Golden Island, had requested a formal meeting, and Cheonggwan, after reporting it to his superiors, had received permission to guide him there.

'I can't ruin things now that everything is going so smoothly. There will be other opportunities.'

He was intrigued by Cheonggwan, the first yokai he'd met in this world, but he had no intention of harming him. His earlier reaction was just an instinctive response to a new type of genetic material. Even though Harley's body was nearing perfection, his instincts, ingrained in his very being, were beyond his control.

"Ahem, but yokai can regenerate, right? Even if they lose a limb or two? You're overreacting, buddy."

"I don't know what kind of environment you come from, but not all yokai have regenerative abilities. I specialize in spellcasting, not physical combat."

"Ah, that's a shame…"

"…Huh?"

"Nothing, nothing. Let's go! Kahahaha!"

"…"

The Golden Island, the veiled yokai faction. Their public face, the Mosan Sect, was located in Jiangsu Province, on the eastern coast, but fortunately, they didn't have to travel there.

"That's just a front for external activities. Most of the Mosan Sect members are human, and we yokai reside elsewhere."

Cheonggwan led him to a large river.

"We each have our own methods, but I'm most comfortable with this, perhaps due to my origins. While it's highly dependent on the terrain, it's quite convenient if you can find the right waterway."

Cheonggwan unpacked his ritual tools, set up an altar on a flat area by the river, and began chanting, performing a strange ritual. The river began to churn and ripple.

'This is a spectacular sight. …But what's that?'

Harley, fascinated by the ritual, different from the Zhuge Clan's spellcasting, noticed something on the riverbed. A hole, reflecting a different scene, a forest not of this place.

"…Phew, done. We can enter now. This will take us to the pride of the Golden Island, a hidden realm within this world! It's unusual for a wandering yokai to be granted access so easily, but it seems they're interested in meeting you, Lord Mad Demon."

Cheonggwan, having packed his tools, approached him with a bright smile, shaking a small bell. He was relieved to be returning home.

"Alright, let's go… Ah!"

"What is it, Lord Mad Demon?"

"…Nothing, I just remembered something I forgot."

Harley paused, scratching the back of his head, and clicked his tongue. He had just realized, seeing the former Mad Demon, Mok Ingwang, through Hugo's eyes at the Shaolin Temple, that he had left without saying anything.

"Well, it can't be helped! Let's go, buddy! Hahaha!"

He shrugged it off and stepped forward confidently. Mok Ingwang seemed to be treated well at the Shaolin Temple. While he was an unaffiliated wanderer, they wouldn't mistreat someone who had helped them in a crisis, even if it was unintentional. And he had been a great help. Besides, having suffered heavy losses, the Shaolin Temple would want to keep a powerful martial artist like him around for as long as possible.

'I can visit him after I'm done here.'

His objective was to gather information. It wouldn't take long.

Harley followed Cheonggwan, who jumped into the river, shaking the metal bell, and stepped into the hole on the riverbed.

And then, he found himself standing in the middle of a strange, dreamlike forest. And—

"Grrr— What's this? A mongrel? Hey, who are you?"

—he came face to face with someone who was already there.

A massive yokai, standing before him with arms crossed, looking down at him.

"Eek! W… Why is Lord Dool here…?"

Cheonggwan, who had entered the hidden realm with Harley, recoiled in fear. The yokai seemed to be infamous.

"Is there somewhere I can't go? And you, are you mute? Or are you just frozen by my magnificence? Keh keh keh—!"

A monstrous figure, over five meters tall, with a tiger-like body, a long tail, sharp fangs bared in a lipless grin, a pair of boar-like tusks protruding from between them, and eyes burning like will-o'-the-wisps. A violent aura, befitting his terrifying appearance, filled the surroundings.

'Impressive. It's thanks to monsters like him that they've managed to survive.'

While not as powerful as the Heavenly Demon, he seemed comparable to the Sword Saint of the Nangun Clan. As Harley admired him inwardly, Cheonggwan, gulping nervously, stepped forward.

"U… Um, Lord Dool? This person is a guest of the Azure Dragon…"

"Get lost, fish. Before I fillet you."

"Eek!"

But his courage didn't last. Cheonggwan froze, his breath caught in his throat, as Dool growled and glared at him, his eyes burning like ghostly flames.

Harley, certain that the yokai wasn't just there to greet him, stepped forward, a subtle smile playing on his lips.

"Hold on, big guy. Just to be sure, are you picking a fight?"

He had to confirm. He was a guest, invited into their territory. He had to play along until he achieved his objective.

"Keh keh keh, a fight? Perhaps… Consider it a simple test. I can't just let in a stranger without verification. A warrior proves his worth through battle."

"Aha! An initiation, then?"

"Hoo? Interested?"

"Kahaha—! Of course!"

Cheonggwan waved his arms frantically, his face pale with fear, but he was already forgotten.

A fighting spirit filled the air.

"Just my style! I love that kind of thing!"

Harley grinned, his mouth splitting open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. A few drops of drool, which he had been suppressing, dripped onto the ground.

'He's a physical type—'

An extremely developed physique, each cell radiating violent energy, unlike Cheonggwan. Harley instinctively knew.

'He' would be an exquisite delicacy, unlike any other.

'—Just one bite… No, he's big, so I can have a few bites!'

A suppressed hunger surged within him.

Dool had been bored out of his mind recently.

The restriction placed upon him when he joined the Golden Island for survival, after his brethren were killed, was the problem.

He was forbidden from harming members of the Golden Island. It was a condition he had initially accepted without much thought, but he soon realized it wasn't so simple. For him, who thrived on conflict and battle, this place was no different from a prison. He could only wander around, instigating fights and watching from the sidelines, or trying to provoke others into attacking him first…

And his notoriety made those tricks ineffective.

As he was contemplating leaving and fighting until his death…

…he heard that a wandering yokai had been granted access to the Golden Island.

'An outsider!'

Someone who wasn't part of the Golden Island—someone not bound by the restriction. While being granted entry suggested he was a guest and a potential recruit, Dool didn't care about such trivial details. He was an outsider, for now!

He rushed to the entrance and soon encountered his target.

A man radiating a familiar, extraordinary aura. His initial plan to tear him limb from limb and devour him changed slightly. Perhaps he could beat him up a bit and make him a subordinate.

With that thought, he greeted the newcomer with unusual friendliness, and they reached an amicable agreement, unlike his initial plan to pick a fight.

And then, the unexpected happened.

"Let's see how we measure up, shall we?"

As soon as he finished speaking…

Crack— Crack—

…his body, which had only reached Harley's thigh, began to rapidly expand. Past his waist, his chest, his shoulders… above his head…

"Ah, whoops. Too big? It's been a while, so I'm a bit rusty! Kahahaha!"

Rumble—

A thunderous laughter, accompanied by a howling wind, shook the surroundings.

Dool stared up at him, his mouth agape. It wasn't just his size. The density of his writhing muscles, the intensity of his burning energy, like a volcano about to erupt, pressed down on everything around him, forcing him to acknowledge its reality.

'Uh…'

A sudden, sobering thought crossed his mind.

'Is this really a good idea?'

Of course not. But it was too late.